Spectrum
by The Never Minder
Summary: 100-word drabble series; prompts from the XANA's Lair forum. Week 7: "Papers, papers, papers; it always comes down to this."
1. Prompt 1: Picture

William returns to Kadic to find he's been banned from the photography lab.

He's been banned from a lot of things, actually. It doesn't feel like any time has passed at all, but in reality the clone has had months and months to destroy his reputation. People treat him like he's either made of dense stone or shattering glass.

He's given the last photo, one supposedly taken by his hands. A hundred thousand words wouldn't be enough, not for him, but William stares and stares at the image anyway as if it can somehow fill the gaps in his soul.


	2. Prompt 2: Dark Instinct

The child struggled, hacking and coughing, but XANA's grip did not lessen. It was truly ending, the life of his greatest foe…

As if by instinct, a maniacal sound suddenly poured unbidden from XANA's pseudo-lips: laughter, crazed like a madman's.

Shocked by at its own profoundly _illogical_ display, XANA's human hands unceremoniously dropped Jeremie Belpois into the river. He sank without resistance.

This was the mere destruction of a human. The removal an obstacle. Nothing to warrant such…_human_ behavior. Without double-checking to ensure that the boy was truly deceased, XANA turned and headed back to the factory, sullen and silent.


	3. Prompt 3: A Different Meeting

It's just a little difficult to wrap my head around. He was…he was our age, you know?

Stop _looking_ at me like that, okay, Ulrich? I'm fine. Totally fine. Sheesh, I don't think you've asked this many questions in the two months we've been roommates…

What? Whisper a little louder, I can't—Ishiyama? Yeah, I see her. She's the one who totally beats you every week in those classes that Jim—aw, yeah, she _is_ crying. I wonder if she knew him? He had to have had _some_ friends…

Nah, wait and talk to her after. The service is starting.


	4. Prompt 4: Twelve

You like to believe they forget you're the youngest.

Just barely, you manage it: ignoring the way Odd teases you a little more than the others, the way Ulrich smiles knowingly when you prattle on about late night conversations in front of a computer screen, the sheer _panic_ in Yumi's eyes when she hears you scream for help.

They're all protective of you in their own way—_you_, so small and defenseless and _worthless_.

It's a weeknight, 12:00 AM. Still no success. A gentle voice from your computer says, "Get some rest, Jeremie."

From Aelita, the condescension hurts the most.


	5. Prompt 5: Someone, catch that monster

_William's outdone himself this time_, Yumi thought bitterly, hurling a fan. It hit one Tarantula dead on, exploding it into fragments of data, but there were more waiting: she was trapped. Nearby, Odd and Ulrich weren't faring much better, trying to duck around the surrounding monsters but getting cut off again and again. They couldn't reach Aelita.

Helplessly, Yumi watched William get further toward the cliff's edge with her unconscious friend, preparing to throw her into the Digital Sea.

"Someone!" she screamed, looking for a way out, any way out. "Catch that—"

The blast caught her between the eyes.


	6. Prompt 6: Miss Popularity

In all fairness, Sissi's popularity hadn't been in her own imagination. Not at first.

She was pretty; she knew how to dress, knew how to make the boys stutter even in sixth grade. She was envied for her father's position, for her clothes and her poise and her charms. But she only had eyes for Ulrich and the secret his friends were guarding.

And after a certain point, that obsession replaced whatever standing she'd had. The girls thought her annoying, the boys found her intimidating, and Sissi was too caught up in her mystery to notice that anything had changed.


	7. Prompt 7: Future  Aelita

_Papers, papers, papers_; it always comes down to this. She can't leave. And he gets on the plane.

Jeremie tried his best on the forgeries (_he didn't, really, he's done this so many times it should be easy_) but here she is without a passport and he's getting on the plane for America. And here she is, Aelita, standing alone in an airport without a ticket and without a past.

_Papers_.

Her heart aches with betrayal and her eyes sting, a pretty young woman in an airport alone watching her fiancé leave for a business trip. She feels unspeakably abandoned.


End file.
